LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



D D D 2 S 5 H 5 ■=! 1 b 



Administrations of Govern 
nors of Missouri 



HAMILTON ROWAN GAMBLE 

and tbe 

Provisional Government of Missouri 



BY 

JUDGE JOHN F. PHILIPS 



Reprint From (he 

MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 
October, 1910 



COLUMBIA. MISSOURI. 
1910 



MISSOURI 
HISTORICAL REVIEW, 

VOL. 5. OCTOBER, 1910. NO. 1. 

HAMILTON ROWAN GAMBLE AND THE PROVISIONAL 
GOVERNMENT OP MISSOURI. 



Hamilton Rowan Gamble was born in Winchester, Vir- 
ginia, November 29th, 1798 . His grandfather emigrated from 
Ireland to the Colony of Pennsylvania in 1753, but after a few 
years returned to his native land. His eldest son, however, 
retvirned to America prior to the Revolution, and served con- 
spicuously as an engineer in the American army during the 
war. Subsequently he became a prominent citizen of Phila- 
delphia, occupying the chair of Profe-ssor of Greek and Latin 
in the University of Penns.ylvania. A younger son, Joseph, 
was bom in Ireland, after the father returned there. He 
was the father of the subject of this article. His wife was 
Anne Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton, of the Strath, 
Ireland. They arrived and settled in Virginia in 1784. 
There were seven children bom to them ; the youngest of whom 
was Hamilton Rowan Gamble. From this Hibernian strain, 
doubtless, came that rich vein of genuine humor whicli, now 
and then, in conversation enlivened as a glad sunbeam his 
serious face, and often flashed out in his speeches relieving the 
severity of his logic. 

His academic education was completed at Hampden-Sid- 
ney College, Prince Edward Oo.unty. He studied law; and 



2 MISSOURI HISTORICAL B*:VIEW. 

such were liis precocity and development that by the time lie 
reached his majority he had been admitted to the bar in three 
states. At first he went to Tennessee; but becoming attract- 
ed to St. Louis he arrived there in 1818, and became deputy 
circuit clerk under his elder brother Archibald Gamble. The 
spirit of adventure and enterprise being strong in him he 
went farther west, and located at Old Franklin, the county seat 
of Howard County, which at that time comprised more than 
one-half of the territory of the State. By the force of 
specific ascendancy he soon became Prosecuting Attorney of 
that vast jurisdiction. In that capacity he early displayed a 
conspicuous quality of his character, a conscientious sense of 
duty. If he discovered that the person charged with the 
commission of an offense was not guilty, or that the evidence 
against him was not satisfactory to his honest mind, he did 
not hesitate to ask leave to enter a nolle, or suggest to the jury 
a verdict of not guilty. And this was characteristic of his 
whole private and public life, — inculcating the aphorism that 
success won at the sacrifice of justice is dishonor. 

There is a tradition, vouched for by Hon. James 0. 
Broadhead, as coming second handed from Judge Abiel Leon- 
ard, that while Gamble, Leonard and John R. French were 
"young limbs of the law" at Old Franklin, French and some 
one, whose name is forgotten, agreed to fight a duel. Gamble 
and Leonard were the seconds. The party rode horse back 
across the State to Louisiana, Pike County, near the selected 
place for the deadly encounter, known then as Chenal Ecarti, 
on the Mississippi River. All stopped at an old hostelry, 
wearied with the trip, and sought rejuvenation in that elixir 
that either makes friends or enemies of those who touch 
glasses. They stood elbow to elbow and man to man as the 
glasses clicked together; and as their hearts warmed their 
hands clasped in friendship, and the duel was indefinitely 
postponed . 

When Frederick Bates became Governor of the State 
young Gamble was selected as Secretary, which took him to 
St. Charles, then the seat of Government. Governor Bates 



HAMILTON BROWN GAMBLE. 3 

soon thereafter died, whereupon Mr. Gamble returned to St. 
Louis, and resumed the practice of law. There meeting Miss 
Coalter, of Columbia, South Carolina, he wooed and was ac- 
cepted, and they were married at the old homestead in Novem- 
ber, 1827. The bride's father was a distinguished South 
Carolinian. His daughters must have possessed rare charms 
of person and character, for others of them wedded such men 
as Edward Bates, of St. Louis, William C. Preston, of South 
Carolina, Chancellor Harper, and Dr. Means, brother of Gov- 
frnor Means, of South Carolina, himself a leading planter and 
citizen of the Commonwealth. 

Such were his attainments and qualities that in a short 
time he stood at the forefront of a bar that could boast of such 
members as Thomas H. Benton, Henry S. Geyer, and David 
Barton, United States Senators, Mathias McGirk and Robert 
Wash, afterwards members of the Supreme Court, and his 
brother-in-law, Edward Bates, afterwards Attorney General 
of the United States; and he was the peer of after-comers, 
greater lawyers than they. All of whom found Gamble, at 
Nisi or before the higher courts, a most formidable competitor; 
always to be feared and respected for his surpassing ability 
and tact. 

His distinctive attainments and judicial temper com- 
mended him for a place on the Supreme bench of the State, to 
which he was elected, receiving an unprecedented majority al- 
though in politics he was of the minority party. He took 
his seat in that court in 1851. There was then no office of 
Chief Justice, but his associates voted him the presidency of 
the court. His first opinion appears on the first page of the 
15th and his last in the 20th volume of the Supreme Court 
reports. Although his career on the bench was short his 
opinions built for him an enduring monument as an eminent 
jurist. Owing to increa.sing ill health he resigned in Novem- 
ber, 1854. Returning to St. Louis he seldom appeared there- 
after in the Nisi courts, but occasionally in important causes 
before the higher courts of the State and Nation. 



4 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

By his good business sense and the income from his pro- 
fession he accumulated a considerable fortune, suiBcient to 
enable him to seek rest from the hard life of the lawyer, and 
to give attention to his impaired health. In order to find 
that surcease, and with a view to the supervision of the educa- 
tion of his children he took up a temporary residence near 
Norristown, Pennsylvania; where he pursued his reading of 
the best literature, and the study of the history and science of 
government and political economy. He was not a politician, 
in the ordinary sense of the term. But he was an observant 
student of the ebb and flow of the tides of State and National 
affairs, the undercurrents and trend of public opinion. Few 
men possessed more familiarity with the historj^ of the coun- 
try in its passage through the Colonial epoch into the forma- 
tion of the federal Union. He knew the phases and import 
of every article and section of the federal Constitution. He 
was familiar with the interpretations and apj)lications given it 
by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the rationale 
of every decision touching its meaning and operation. He 
went deep into the science and philosophy of our form of gov- 
ernment, State and National. So that when the great crisis of 
the impending civil war came, which was to test the capacity 
of the Constitution in peace and war, and to solve the problem 
of the dependence of the federal Union on the will of each of 
the States to the federation, naturally enough his constituency 
at home, representing the vital interests of the comm<-rciaI 
metropolis of the Mississippi valley, turned to the Sage in re- 
tirement at Norristown, and appealed to him to represent them 
in the Convention called by the state legislature to convene 
at the Capital on February 28th, 1861, to consider the relations 
of the State to the Federal Union . "While a sense of duty to 
himself and his family made desirable his restful, quiet life in a 
distant peaceful State, he, doubtless, recalled the sentiment 
of the Old Roman patriot : necesse est ut earn non ut vivam, 
and he heeded that call, receiving the almost unanimous vote 
o.^" his Senatorial District. 

In some respects that convention was the most remarkable 



HAMILTON BROWN GAMBLE. 5 

body of men that ever assembled in tlie State. With ft-w ex- 
ceptions, they were not of the class usually found in legisla- 
ture, or popular assemblages. They were grave, thoughtful, 
discreet, educated men, profoundly impressed with the great 
responsibilities of their position. Among them were ex- 
Judges of the Supreme Court, ex-Governors, ex-Congre^smen, 
ex-State Senators and Representatives, leading lawyers, farm- 
ers, merchants, bankers, and retired business men, represent- 
ing the varied, vital interests of the communities. No im- 
partial, intelligent man can look over the debates of that body, 
extending over two years and more, without being deeply im- 
pressed with the idea of their tremendous intellectual power 
and sense of moral, patriotic obligation. 

True it is, that there were to be seen and heard among 
them the siren voice of the politician of low degree, "big with 
vacuity" — self seeking partisans. But I recall the visable 
effect of Judge Gamble's rebuke, when under provocation from 
a noisome, inveterate talker, he said : 

"What should be the object of each one of us? 
Is it to represent a party connected with the adminis- 
tration of the Federal Government, or opposed to it? 
Is it for the purpose of representing any of the defunct 
political parties that have passed from the stage of 
action? We have nothing to do with them. We came 
here and are to act with reference to no question that 
concerns them or their past history, their future resus- 
citation or domination in this State, We are to act 
for the people of the State of Missouri in reference to 
their interest, their honor, in reference to the perpetua- 
tion of the blessings we have so long enjoyed, — as long 
as we have trod the soil of Missouri, If, Sir, there be 
a feeling that one is to obtain a triumph over the other, 
certainly the only triumph now worthy of attainment, 
is that of being found more faithful than others ia dis- 
charge of duties devolving upon us." (1) 

1. Proceedings of the Missouri State Convention held at Jeffer- 
son City, July, 1861, p, 73, 



6 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

There were some great speeches made before that Coaven- 
tion, dealing with the character of the federal Union, the rela- 
tions of the respective States thereto, and the lawful rijht of 
one of them without the consent of others to withdraw, ad 
libitum, from the Union. Judge Gamble never made a set 
speech. He disliked mere meretricious display, in which self 
is never lost sight of. He was, indeed, what Rufus Choate 
termed a thing most rare, "a reasonable, modest, learned 
man . " He was not an orator, in the popular sense . His 
(loquence was that masterful logic, deep, sincere earnestness, 
that overwhelms sophistry and convinces intelligent judg- 
ment. No art of the adversary could deflect him from the ob- 
jective point under consideration. He stuck with pertinaceous 
energy to the facts and law that controlled, and struck hard 
at the gnarled knots in the way. 

There was one position, especially taken by Judge Gamble 
and Willard P. Hall, respecting the action to be declared by 
the Convention at its first session, which profoundly impressed 
all. It could not be better expressed than in the succinct 
summary of Hall's remarks on the occasion of taking the oath 
of office as Lieutenant Governor: 

"I believe, gentlemen, that to Missouri Union is 
peace and disunion is war. I believe that today Mis- 
souri could be as peaceful as Illinois, if her citizens had 
recognized their obligations to the Constitution and 
laws of their country. Whatever might be said by citi- 
zens of other States, certainly Missouri has no i-ight to 
complain of the General Government. I believe it to 
be a fact that there is no law of a general character 
upon your statutes that has been enacted since Missouri 
came into the Union, but has received the vote ana sup- 
port of the representatives of the State. "Whatever 
we have asked from the government of the Unite! 
States has been given to us most cheerfully. We asked 
a liberal land policy and we got it ; we asked grants for 
our railroads and we got them ; we asked for a fugitive 



HAMILTON BROWN GAMBL3. 7 

slave law and it was given to us; we asked that our 
peculiar views in reference to the finances of the coun- 
try should be regarded, and even that was granted . In 
short, if the people of this State had the whole control 
of the Federal Government, if there had been but one 
State in the Union, the very policy which has been 
adopted by the General Government would have been 
adopted as best calculated to advance the interests of 
the 'State. * * * Notwithstanding the denuncia- 
tions we sometimes hear against the Government of the 
United States and the assaults made upon it, I am free 
to admit, that when I reflect upon the history of this 
State, when I remember its humble origin, — upon the 
proud and exalted position it occupied but a few months 
ago, my affections do cluster around the government of 
my country. As a Missourian I desire no change in the 
political relations that exist between this State and the 
Government of the United States; and least of all, do I 
desire such a change as will throw her into the arms 
of those who have proved unfaithful to the high trust 
imposed upon them by a generous and confiding 
people." (2) 

When the convention disappointed the expectations of the 
authors of the legislative act calling it, by declining to pass 
an ordinance of secession, Governor Claib Jackson, as was 
then more than suspected and believed by well informed men, 
busied himself covertly with preparations to have his Legis- 
lature pass such an ordinance, and to be prepared v/iih a 
military force to enforce its recognition. The developments of 
history, disclosed since the war, fully confirm that belief. 
When Frank Blair brought about the contretemps of the Camp 
Jackson maneuver, the Governor captured the President of 
the Convention, General Sterling Price, by making him com- 
mander of the Militia of the State ; and with him and a ma- 



2. Proceedings of tbe Missouri State Convention held at Jeffer- 
son City, July, 1861, p. 136. 



8 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

jority of the Legislature and the heads of the executive de- 
partments, carrying off the great seal of the State, assembled 
at Neosho, and went through the form of passing an act of 
secession. Disbanding, the Governor and staff, with the Lieu- 
tenant Governor, with the seal of the State, went outside of 
the State, within the military lines under the flag of the 
Southern Confederacj', proclaiming that they were a part of 
the Confederacy. They could not return to the capital of 
Missouri without the risk of being arrested for treason. 

The result was that the Convention, in session at the eapitol 
found itself confronted with a most anomalous situation. The 
State treasury was depleted, and the Convention was left 
without the means of defraying its own expenses. There was 
no military force to protect the State in the condition of ex- 
posure to anarchy. The State was under martial law ; and a 
German military commandant, with but crude ideas of civil 
government, was dominant at the State capital. Under the 
recent census the State was entitled to two additional repre- 
sentatives in the Congress of the United States, demanding a 
new apportionment of the Congressional districts, or a legis- 
lative enactment providing for the manner of securing siieh 
additional representation. The Legislature had disbanded 
without making any provision therefor. 

What was the duty of the membei's of the Convention in 
such a conjuncture to the people of the State who had sent 
them to the capital to represent them? Were they to display 
the moral cowardice of those "who do not care what becomes 
of the Ship of State, so that the\' may save themselves in the 
cockboat of their own fortune," or should they first save the 
State, and leave their action to the sober judgment of pos- 
terity? They chose the latter course. 

Naturally enough the few favoring secession or nothing, 
and others in sympathy with the absent State officials, desir- 
ing that nothing should be done conflicting with the mere 
theory of their ofiSeial existence, vigorously opposed any ac- 
tion of the Convention other than an adjournment sine die. 
The opposition was led principally, in so far as talking was 



HA.MILTON BROWN GAMBLIC. 9 

concerned, by Uriel Wright of St. Louis, who had come to the 
Convention as an unconditional Unionist; and at its first ses- 
sion had made a three days' speech in opposition to the whole 
theory of secession, minimizing the grievances of the seceding 
States, with a force of eloquence that enthused, beyond de- 
scription, the entire Convention, including the presiding of- 
ficer. General Price, who while with dignity seeking to repress 
the applause of the galleries, said to me on adjournmeiit, in 
walking to the old Planter's House where we boarded: ''That 
speech was so fine I too felt like applauding." But alas, for 
the infirmaty of great geniuses, Wright was carried off of his 
high pedestal by the small incident of the Camp Jackson af- 
fair, and came to the July session of the Convention anxious 
to display the usual zeal of the new convert. So he turned 
loose the whole vocabulary of his invective against everything 
aud everybody pro-Union. To my conception he was the most 
brilliant orator of the State, with a vast wealth of historical, 
political and literary information. Like a very tragedian he 
bestrode the platform, and with the harmony of accent and 
emphasis he charmed like a siren. But he was unsteady in 
judgment, unstable in conviction and inconsistent of purpose. 
And, therefore, was wanting in that moral force that holds 
and leads thoughtful men. His rhetoric went into thin air 
before the severe logic and more sincere eloquence of such 
men as Judge Gamble, the two brothers, William A. and Wil- 
lard P. Hall, John B. Henderson and James 0. Broadhead. 

The arguments advanced in favor of the power o'' the 
Convention to establish a Provisional government to meet the 
emergency may be summarized as follows: The Convention 
called for by the Legislature was elected by popular vote of 
the people. Under our form of representative government 
when such delegates met they were as the whole people of 
the State assembled. Insofaras concerned the domestic, local 
affairs and policy of the State, the people were all powerful 
to make and unmake, bind and unbind, so long as they main- 
tained a government Republican in form, and not in conflict 
with the Federal constitution. The only recognizable limita- 



10 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

tion upon its power was to be found in the terms of the leg- 
islative enactment calling it. 

In anticipation and expectation of the framers of the act, 
that an Ordinance of secession would be adopted, they sought 
to invest the Convention with most plenary powers, in order 
to meet the requirements of the new, extraordinary conditions 
likely to arise, both from without and within the State. Ac- 
cordingly the Convention was authorized not only to take 
consideration of the existing relations between the goveriiment 
of the United States and the governments and people of the 
different States, but also "the government and people of the 
State of Missouri, and to adopt such measures for vindicating 
the sovereignty of the State, and the protection of its institu- 
tions as shall appear to them to be demanded." So that the 
Convention during its deliberations found civil government in 
the State paralyzed, without a head, society unprotected by 
the arm of the State, disorder and confusion fast spreading 
over it like a pall of anarchy. It was the deliberate judgment 
of the great majority that it was neither extra-constitutional, 
usurpatory, nor without the recognized law of public neces- 
sity, that it should provide a Provisional Government, ad 
interim. 

The first step in this work of conservation was to provide 
for an executive head. And no higher evidence of the conser- 
vative impulses of the Convention could be furnishel than the 
fact of its designation of Hamilton R. Gamble as Governor 
and Willard P. Hall as Lieutenant Governor. Where could 
have been found two wiser, safer, more prudent, unselfish 
men? Their very names were a rainbow of promise to the 
soreh' vexed and perplexed people of the State. With uririring 
energy, consummate ability and unfaltering courage Governor 
Gamble set his face and all the aids he could command to the 
work of restoring order, lawful process, and peace within the 
borders of the commonwealth. 

That in that endeavor and purpose he and his coadjutors 
should have encountered opposition and criticism from the 
very element he so earnestly strove to protect excited wonder 



HAMILTON BROWN GAMBLE. 11 

among thoughtful, good citizens at the time; and in the light 
of experience it now seems anomalous. There were two ex- 
tremes in the State. One was the impracticable theorists, 
who rather than accept deliverence from any source other 
than the Claib Jackson defunct government, would accept 
anarchy. The other was the inflamed Radicals, who pref3rred 
the substitution of military for civil government, so long as 
under its bloody reign they could make reprisals and reek 
personal spites upon an unarmed class who had incurred their 
dislike. In other words, they preferred a condition of disor- 
der and confusion as more favorable to rapine, plunder and 
persecution. The very determined policy of the Gamble ad- 
ministration to extend protection to noncombatants, to life, 
liberty and property, was made the slogan of the rapidly re- 
cruiting forces of radicalism that "the Gamble Government" 
was but another name for Southern Sympathy. This feeling 
was ingeniously communicated to the Secretary of War, 
Stanton, whose motto seemed to be aut Caesar aut Nihil. 

Between the two factions, the one denying on every occa- 
sion the lawful authority of his administration, and, therefore, 
yielding him not even needed moral support, and the other 
demanding non-interference with predatory warfare and re- 
prisals on "Rebel Sympathizers," to say nothing of the machi- 
nations of ambitious politicians, his soul was sorely vexed and 
tried. But with a fortitude as sublime as his moral courage 
he never hesitated nor halted in waging, with all the force 
and resources at his command, an uncompromising war on 
outlawry, no matter under what guise it masqueraded or under 
what banner it despoiled. He believed in liberty with law 
and government without unnecessary oppression. 

Criticism was made by some of the action of the Conven- 
tion in taking upon itself the exercise of the legislative func- 
tion, in repealing some enactments of the Jackson Legislature, 
and in declaring some new statutory provisions. On its face 
the criticism seemed plausible, inasmuch as it could not be 
said that it was in the contemplation of the Jackson Legisla- 
ture that the Convention would undo its legislation, and that 



12 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

the power to legislate was not expressed, ipsissime verbis, in 
the call. The answer to which was and is that the grant of 
power to do certain things carries with it by implication all 
the reasonable agencies and instrumentalities for effectuating 
the exercise of it. So when the Convention was authorized 
by the creative act to adopt such measures as to it 
seemed demanded to vindicate the sovereignty of the 
State and afford protection to its people, the Con- 
vention when it met, clothed with the functions 
of the whole people under so broad provisions, was empowered 
to put out of the way obstructive acts and to substitute such 
as were deemed essential to accomplish the great objects it 
was commissioned to compass. This the Convention did, pro- 
visionally, until such time as the people could in the custom- 
ary manner hold elections and elect a legislative body; which 
the Convention authorized and encouraged. 

The State was without representation in the Senate at 
"Washington. The two Senators theretofore elected by the 
Legislature, Truston Polk of St. Louis and Waldo P. Johnson 
of Osceola, when the war began, seceded to take sides with 
the Confederacy. Governor Gamble designated for one of the 
vacancies Robert Wilson, of Andrew County, who was a mem- 
ber of the Convention, in whom he recognized such sterling 
qualities of mind and staunch patriotism as to make him a 
safe depository of such a trust in such a crisis. In the tem- 
porary absence from the State of Governor Gamble, Ijieuten- 
ant Governor Hall designated John B. Henderson, another 
distinguished member of the Convention, to fill the other va- 
cant seat in the Senate. His career in the Senate vindicated 
the wisdom of the appointment. 

Oppressed with the heavy burdens of such an ofBce, under 
such conditions, and weakened physically with increasing ill 
health. Governor Gamble tendered his resignation to the Con- 
vention in 1863, and begged that it be accepted. But so pro- 
foundly impressed was the Convention with the supreme im- 
portance to the welfare of the State that he should continue 
his great work, it implored him to withdraw the resignation. 



HAMILTON BROWN GAMBLE. 13 

I can yet see his palid face, furrowed with the ravages of 
care and disease, his hair like burnished silver, his eyes aglow 
with the fire of martyrdom, his voice so mellow, yet perfectly 
modulated, as he stood before the Convention and said: "Tour 
will be done not mine." With the harness chafing and bearing 
bard upon his wasting frame he went on to his death, January 
31st, 1864, lamented and honored at his funeral as I have 
never before or since witnessed in this State. 

That the Convention which called into existence the Pro- 
visional Government committed mistakes, in the way of ex- 
ercise of power in certain directions, in the light which time 
throws upon the actions of men, may be conceded. Buc, as 
was well said by a great jurist : ' ' No argument can be drawn 
from the wisdom that comes after the fact." As applied to 
little profit as a future guide, as the occasion for its use will 
never arise again, we trust. 

The fact, however, remains that the Convention kept the 
State firmly lashed to her constitutional moorings in the 
Union ; that the Provisional Government sought, with large 
measure of si;ecess, to give the people civil in lieu of military 
government, the reign of law for lawlessness, order for dis- 
order. It opened the courts of justice, and gave the people 
the process of law, in place of the Praetorian guard. It col- 
lected and husbanded the State and county revenues: and 
maintained the sovereignty of the State and its harnun'ous 
relation to the general civil government by providing for its 
representation in the United States Senate and House of 
Representatives. 

As the commander of one of the ten Regiments Governor 
Gamble induced President Lincoln to organize in the State, 
as arm of the Union army, I was frequently brought into of- 
ficial relations with him. I bear testimony that he was one of 
the purest minded, most unselfish and wisest of men, a sincere 
patriot and Christian gentleman. 

There are now only four survivors of that memorable 
Convention : General John B. Henderson, Judge Elijah Nor- 
ton, Colonel William T. Leper and myself. 



14 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

When the reins of government fell from the nerveless 
hands of Governor Gamble they were taken up by Lieutenant 
Governor Hall, than whom no safer man lived. He was a 
great lawyer, familiar with the conditions and needs of the 
State, and possessed the ability to provide for and the courage 
to demand them. 

How blessed the Commonwealth, to have had the serv'ees 
of sueh Magistrates; and how the people should cherish their 
memory ! 

JNO. F. PHILIPS. 
Kansas City, Mo. 



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